New Education Laws as of July 1, 2025

During the 2025 Florida legislative session, the FCSA advocacy team – led by Ralph Arza – represented our member schools and the more than 406,000 students they serve. We championed the academic success public charter schools have achieved over the past 29 years and pushed for continued support and expansion of high-quality charter schools statewide. Thanks to our efforts, many of our members’ top priorities were embraced by state lawmakers and the Governor.

Below is a list of education and charter school-related laws that were approved during the 2025 Florida legislative session, signed by Governor DeSantis, and took effect on July 1, 2025.

SB 2510 Changes appropriations for prekindergarten through grade 12 education to align with the new state budget:

• • Changes how state allocations to educational programs are calculated
  • Replaces the weighted full-time equivalent funding for certain acceleration options with a new Academic Acceleration Options Supplement as a categorical in the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP)
  • Requires Schools of Hope program funds to be maintained at $25 million or more, starting July 1, 2027
  • “persistently low-performing school” definition now includes a school in the bottom 10% in at least two of the three years for student performance for grade 3 English Language Arts or grade 4 mathematics
  • Requires the DOE to make recommendations by July 1, 2028, on a Title I performance incentive program
  • Authorizes the school district’s reading plan to include parent resources for struggling students and information about student eligibility for the New Worlds Reading Initiative

SB 1470: Safe Schools updates:

• Specifically, the bill:
  • Limits the school perimeter, locked access, and door security requirements to the time beginning 30 minutes before the school day and ending 30 minutes after;
  • Allows doors or gates to remain unlocked if a locked barrier separates the space from student-occupied areas;
  • Provides exemptions for:
    • Career and technical education spaces where locking doors would pose health or safety risks (with documentation in the Florida Safe Schools Assessment Tool);
    • Common areas such as cafeterias and media centers, except during instructional time or student testing; and
  • Requires each substitute teacher to receive school safety protocols and procedures before his or her first day of substitute teaching.

  Temporary Door Lock Use During Active Assailant Incidents

  The bill allows classrooms with permanently installed door locks to also use temporary door locks during active assailant incidents if the devices:

  • • Can be removed from the egress side in a single operation without a key;
    • Can be removed from the ingress side with a key or other credential;
    • Comply with the Florida Fire Prevention Code, with allowance for installation at any height; and
    • Are incorporated into the school’s active assailant response plan.

• • Changes school security guard training and certification requirements to align with school guardians, requires that they be trained and approved by a sheriff, and requires guards in private schools meet the same requirements
  • Requires employment and disciplinary actions for guards to be reported to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE)
  • Mandates that security guards submit the required psychological evaluation to the sheriff for review
  • Allows schools to use firearm detection dogs for school security
  • Requires FLDOE to establish and maintain a centralized system that integrates panic alert systems and digital school maps used by public schools
  • Creates the Florida Institute of School Safety

HB 443  Charter School Administration and Operations updates

• Clarifies that charter schools are public schools and should be considered a public facility for concurrency related to the development of communities
• prohibits sponsors from imposing administrative deadlines on charter schools that are earlier than the sponsor’s own deadlines for similar reports or submissions. Additionally, the bill limits imposing deadlines for financial audits or other administrative requirements that are 15-days before the sponsor’s own deadline for similar submissions to the Department of Education.
• Allows high-performing charter schools to create their codes of conduct or adapt them from other schools; allows certain charter schools to enroll more students than their charter specifies
• Prevents the landlord of a charter school or anyone closely connected with them from being on the governing board
• Allows virtual students to participate in an interscholastic athletic team in the school district where they live
• Allows university lab schools to use discretionary capital improvement funds for purchases, lease-purchases, and leases of real property, facilities, insurance, certain vehicles, certain equipment, and other materials
• Allows a high-performing charter school to assume the charter of an existing charter school within the same district and requires that the request to assume the charter be in written format from the charter school being assumed.
• Expands enrollment preferences for charter schools to include all preschool children who completed a prekindergarten program at the charter school or at a prekindergarten program with a written agreement with the charter school, not limited to only the Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) program
• Allows certain charter schools to increase the school’s enrollment capacity beyond what is stated in the charter agreement, subject to certain conditions, and requires notification by the charter school to the sponsor of the intention to increase enrollment by March 1 for the upcoming school year
• Requires that the charter school sponsor and the Department of Education promptly and efficiently share student data, including student assessment data, with charter schools
• Clarifies that charter schools must comply with Florida law regarding notification to parents of any change in a student’s services or monitoring related to mental, emotional, or physical well-being
• Allows full-time virtual students to participate in athletic activities in any public school in the district where the student resides if requirements are met, or develop an agreement with a private school for participation in athletics.

HB 1105 Education omnibus bill covers several topics: 

• • Updates Charter School Conversion process: Allows a majority of parents or guardians to decide to convert a district-run public school to a public charter school without input from the school teachers or administrators
  • Allows municipalities to apply to convert existing public schools into job engine charter schools
  • Requiring school districts to share discretionary surtax revenue with charter schools
  • Cell phone restriction: Adds restrictions on wireless communication devices for students in Elementary and Middle School. 

    Elementary and middle school students will be banned from using cell phones from “bell to bell” during the school day under a bill signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 30.

    High school students will still be permitted to use their phones outside of class (depending on individual school district rules)

  • Allows students in marching bands to get physical education or performing arts credit
  • Requires the Department of Education to develop integrated courses that allow students to earn credit in both career education courses and required classes for high school graduation
  • Expands Bright Futures Scholarship Program eligibility
  • Allows some private schools to build new facilities without seeking rezoning
  • Authorizes a law enforcement officer to arrest a person without a warrant when there is probable cause to believe that the person has trespassed upon school grounds or facilities 
  • Charter Schools:
    • Requires school districts to share any local government infrastructure surtax revenues with eligible charter schools based on enrollment, for levies approved on or after July 1, 2025.
    • Requires school districts to provide to charter schools with information related to shared discretionary revenues.
    • Requires use of a State Board of Education-adopted standard monitoring tool to monitor charter school performance.

    High School Instruction and Graduation Requirements

    • Allows marching band to substitute for a performing arts or physical education credit, with exceptions.
    • Expands the Florida Seal of Fine Arts to include Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) arts courses.

     

HB 1145 authorizes charter schools to receive funds under the Workforce Development Capitalization Incentive Grant Program, requires school districts and Florida College System institutions to expand money-back guarantee programs to cover six workforce education programs instead of the current three.

HB 296 allows districts-managed public schools and charter schools to postpone the implementation of school start times legislation (as of July 1, 2026, to no earlier than 8 a.m. for middle schools and no earlier than 8:30 a.m. for high schools). 8:30 a.m. for high schools. This

SB 1070 (Second Chance Act) requires an ECG medical evaluation for student athletes beginning in the 2026-2027 school year. High school students participating in interscholastic athletic competition or trying out for a team must complete at least one ECG screening that meets standards established by the FHSAA’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee

HB 809 School Social Workers are now exempt from certain educator certification requirements – state licensing is required, but no longer need to meet mastery of “general and subject area knowledge.” 

HB 447 Disability History and Awareness Instruction (Evin B. Hartsell Act) requires that disability history and awareness instruction during the first two weeks of October include specified materials.

• • Students in kindergarten through grade 3 must be taught about bullying (including what to do if they are being bullied or see it happen) and physical disabilities
  • Students in grades 4 through 6 must be taught about autism spectrum disorder
  • Students in grades 7 through 9 must be taught about hearing impairments
  • Students in grades 10 through 12 must receive information on different types of learning and intellectual disabilities.

HB 1255 Education:

• • The bill specifies that local governments cannot enforce building, site, or operational rules on charter schools–such as parking, student capacity, hours of operation, or site size–unless those rules are also uniformly applied to public schools in the area.
  • Charter schools are exempt from land use changes or permits that would not be required of other public or private schools at the same location.
  • Any condition to limit the size or hours of operation imposed on a charter school must match those for public schools and only apply if the charter school is on a site with an already approved development order that includes such conditions.
  • Authorizes lab schools and charter school consortia with at least 30 member schools and a DOE-approved professional learning system to submit a charter school Teacher of the Year nomination

• • Changes the definition of “economically disadvantaged” for families seeking School Readiness services to use “state median income” instead of “federal poverty level.”
  • Requires that school districts get parental consent before using corporal punishment
  • Adds more support for math instruction
  • Expands authority to buy emergency opioid overdose drugs and protects school employees from liability for administering them

SB 1402 updates for Dropout Retrieval Programs – Requires all dropout retrieval programs that help students who have withdrawn from high school to choose between a school improvement rating or a school grade; requires that each Virtual Instruction Provider (VIP) receive a school grade or school improvement rating for each district with which it contracts.

SB1374 requiring schools/school boards to adopt a policy temporarily removing instructional personnel under specified circumstances; amending s. 1012.797, F.S.; revising requirements for law enforcement to notify specified entities when an employee is arrested for certain offenses.

HB 248 Student participation in Interscholastic and Intrascholastic Extracurricular Sports – expands the options for home-schooled and private school students to play on interscholastic or intrascholastic athletics at Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) member schools.

SB 1514 Anaphylaxis in Public and Charter Schools – requires K-8 grade teachers and school personnel to be trained to respond to allergic reactions and anaphylaxis, including using an FDA-approved epinephrine delivery device. 

HB 259  designates Aug. 21 as “Fentanyl Awareness and Education Day.” Public schools, the Department of Health, local governments, and other agencies are encouraged to sponsor events to promote awareness of the dangers of fentanyl and potential overdoses.

SB 1374 updates School District and charter school Reporting for teacher arrests or misconduct; requires adoption a policy for the temporary removal of teachers from the classroom within 24 hours of an arrest for a felony or misdemeanor offense when notified by law enforcement or by self-reporting; expands law enforcement notification requirements to include additional disqualifying offenses; expands self-reporting requirements to include more offenses and requires instructional and administrative personnel to report an arrest within 48 hours; and clarifies that self-reports are not admissions of guilt and cannot be used against the employee in any civil, criminal, administrative, or judicial proceeding.

SB 356 establishes January 27 as “Holocaust Remembrance Day” and allows the day to be observed in public schools with instruction on the harmful impacts of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism and the positive impacts of the Jewish community on humanity.

HB 549 Gulf of America (Schools) requires the former Gulf of Mexico to be changed to “Gulf of America” in any geographical material in state agencies and in instructional materials or library media adopted or acquired in Florida schools after July 1.

HB 597 updates Diabetes management in schools – allowing schools to acquire, maintain, store, and administer a supply of undesignated glucagon.

SB 958 requires the FLDOE to develop and post information about Type 1 diabetes by Sept. 29, 2025. Schools will be responsible for notifying parents and guardians of VPK, kindergarten, and first-grade students about the online materials.

 SB 1102 Expands the criteria for eligibility for children with special needs served in the School Readiness (SR) program.  Provides specific accountability and training criteria for SR providers to be eligible to receive the special needs differential allocation.

HB 1237 requires the state to identify a free training curriculum on human trafficking awareness by Dec. 1, 2025. All public school employees who have contact with students must receive training on human trafficking awareness.

HB 1607  requires basic training in first aid, including CPR, to be provided once during middle school and once during high school in a physical education or health class. The instruction must allow students to practice CPR and use an automated external defibrillator (AED). Requires every public and charter school to have at least one operational AED on school grounds by July 1, 2027. Schools must also develop a response plan for sudden cardiac arrest or other emergencies.

SB 1546 extends the date for requiring a Level 2 background screening for athletic coaches from January 1, 2025, to, at the latest, July 1, 2026, and allows a person who has not been background screened to be an athletic coach if they are under the direct supervision of an athletic coach who has

Click here for more detailed descriptions of the new laws.

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